Panorama

La Dispute - Panorama
Critic Score
Based on 9 reviews
2019 Ratings: #327 / 805
User Score
Based on 313 ratings
2019 Rank: #417
Liked by 21 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

90
Sputnikmusic

What this adds up to, after four albums and a handful of EPs, is a band that is firing on all cylinders.

80
The 405

Each track on Panorama is a snapshot, a page torn from a pulpy paperback. For the fans, this is La Dispute’s beauty. For Dreyer, hearing his subject’s lives dissected back at him has been a cause of concern, so a distortion of sounds seems natural.

80
DIY

Jordan Dreyer has become a master storyteller on this album.

80
The Skinny

La Dispute are titans of their scene, but they’re also lyricists of the highest calibre, writing songs many will confide in. Album number four isn’t a drastic change in direction, but it reaches heights when their powerful words lash the mind.

80
Kerrang!

Panorama is another outstanding release from a truly special band.

76
Pitchfork

While Panorama is their most user-friendly release, it’s the one that asks most of all to be engaged with like a book—with undivided attention and without any expectation of immediate gratification, to linger on and to be footnoted for later discussion and rumination.

70
Exclaim!

La Dispute are more or less doing what they've always done. They're just continuing the refining process, whatever that is, for better or worse.

60
The Needle Drop

Though far from a bad album, Panorama finds La Dispute's idiosyncratic style becoming an albatross around the band's neck.

zachthesnack
64

La Dispute make a triumphant return filled to the brim with uber-emotional lyricism and smooth melodic transitions. This album had some truly beautiful parts, but overall I fet like it lacked a bit of cohesion that other albums like Wildlife had. This was still a solid release and most definitely not a disappointment, it just got a bit drab by the end. Still miles better than what most post-hardcore acts are putting out.

PipePanic
95

@zachthesnack , this ones for you buddy.

So I had no idea what to expect on this one. Having heard Wildlife and absolutely loving it's hyper-emotional core to the lyrics, I was interested in where La Dispute's big, if not slightly dated, post-hardcore sound, would take the band. And i'm not gonna lie, while this sounds really nice, there isn't a lot here i'm going to be coming back to personally. And that's most likely more of a 'me problem' then the albums fault. The album almost takes a back ... read more

NR

Sleeper AOTY calling it

Bingygingymeow
65

I barley listen to this project but damn is it underwhelming

etzharai
83

I was not a big fan of La Dispute until this album, I love some tracks like Rose Quartz+Fulton Street I, Rhodonite and Grief and Anxiety Panorama.

JWG126
40

The whole appeal of La Dispute was their honesty. It felt like the music was pure. Somewhere At the Bottom was comparable to Astral Weeks or Sacred Guitar and Violin Music of the Modern Aztecs, in that there was no gap between the vocals and the compositions, it all moved together. This doesn't. Perhaps the difference is emotion; maybe they fell into the post-hardcore trap of artifice presented as emotion. Whatever it is, this isn't good.

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Added on: December 4, 2018